Need Advice, recievers shut off

[lawman1627]

I have 2 of my receivers at a summer home of mine, the others are at my house, I got audited today and they shut off all my recievers except the main one, is there any way to reactivate the receivers that are at my home on my account again? E* said I had to get a seperate account for each reciecer, I have been a customer for a long time and didn't realize that this was against their rules, I just recently (within a year) added the extra receivers. I am not looking to get flamed, I am just looking at what options I have to get my recievers back on.Thanks for any help/input.

 

[OoTLink]

This is why you're supposed to keep them all at one place and move them with you back and fourth

 

[bcshields]

The next time you go to your summer house, call dish and change your physical address to the summer home. Leave your billing address at home. Let them know you moved all your receivers to the summer home and you want them turned back on.

Then just cart them back and forth between the two.


Then again I'm willing to bet if you just blindly called tech support and said 2 rcvrs don't work they'll reactivate them. One hand doesn't know what the other is doing half the time.

 

[Mr Tony]

lawman
what I would do is bring the other receivers back with you to your house and get them going again, and then take it back

(by the way...we have had one receiver at out summer home, lake home, cottage for 4 years now)

 

[lawman1627]

So you guys think if i brought them back to my house and called them up they would reactivate the receivers? The bully on the phone told me there was no way they would reactivate those receivers to my account again, is he wrong? They still deactivated the other 2 receivers at my house because I "failed" according to them. Would emailing ceo help me or hurt me? I am just looking to get my service back.

 

[Mr Tony]

So you guys think if i brought them back to my house and called them up they would reactivate the receivers? The bully on the phone told me there was no way they would reactivate those receivers to my account again, is he wrong? They still deactivated the other 2 receivers at my house because I "failed" according to them. Would emailing ceo help me or hurt me? I am just looking to get my service back.

hee hee...they wont reactivate them Thats funny

We had ours at the lake shut off due to not replacing the blue card with the yellow one. It got nuked (all we had were Dish101). 3 weeks after it got shut off, I went up, brought it back and we called it in. They reactivated it in 10 minutes and back up it went

If you have the R&S#'s, call the tech line....you might want ot see the screen in case they throw a curveball at you

 

[Jahntassa]

Now the question is, how did they audit? Did you have the phonelines plugged in on the two recievers?

I'd bring them all back to the address where they're supposed to be and call up tech support. If they don't reactivate due to (them not working for some reason), you might have to fight your way through CSR's.

Dish really has no way of telling if they're all at one location unless you use the phonelines, or they send someone to physically check your house. AFAIK, the only reciever you need to have a phoneline in is the 522.

 

[chaddux]

Now the question is, how did they audit? Did you have the phonelines plugged in on the two recievers?

I'd bring them all back to the address where they're supposed to be and call up tech support. If they don't reactivate due to (them not working for some reason), you might have to fight your way through CSR's.

Dish really has no way of telling if they're all at one location unless you use the phonelines, or they send someone to physically check your house. AFAIK, the only reciever you need to have a phoneline in is the 522.

On the System Info screen, there is a Location ID. I believe they ask you for that to prove they are at the same location. It changes so you would have to have all of the receivers with you to fully pass the audit. Any you can't give are assumed to be elsewhere and are shut off.

 

[Jahntassa]

But how do you get the Location ID? I doubt they have the processor time to figure out by sat signal where you are.. Is it if you're using a different LNB?

You could probably figure out a general area off sat signal, but not if you're using a Dish 500. Two sats and their signal strength wouldn't give enough of a location..unless you calculate the time.. But again..why waste the processor time? I guess it would depend on the LNB?

I'm just curious..it always interests me how technology can be used to do this stuff.

 

[chaddux]

But how do you get the Location ID? I doubt they have the processor time to figure out by sat signal where you are.. Is it if you're using a different LNB?

You could probably figure out a general area off sat signal, but not if you're using a Dish 500. Two sats and their signal strength wouldn't give enough of a location..unless you calculate the time.. But again..why waste the processor time? I guess it would depend on the LNB?

I'm just curious..it always interests me how technology can be used to do this stuff.

It's probably not tied to your specific location. It's just called that based on it's purpose. I would bet it is an algorithm based on your receiver's R00 and/or your smart card's S00 number plus the current time. (These are all things DISH's system can easily replicate.) DISH can easily use the same algorithm and, if the ID matches, they know it's in front of you since it will change quickly. You couldn't just write it down and keep it with you for whenever they call.

 

[larrystotler]

Or they could just send a randomly generated number to all your receiver at the same time(whether the same number or 1 for each receiver), and then they would have a log they can view right in front of them.

 

[Stargazer]

All of the recievers would not have the same location ID. They all have different ones.

 

[chaddux]

Or they could just send a randomly generated number to all your receiver at the same time(whether the same number or 1 for each receiver), and then they would have a log they can view right in front of them.

That presents problems if the receiver is disconnected from a satellite signal. There has to be some sort of on-board algorithm. Thinking about it, time-based algorithm wouldn't work since, I believe, the time is obtained from the satellite.

That's also unlikely because the location ID is not just present during an audit. It changes constantly without ceasing. If your example was reality, they could just send a new ID at the moment of the audit and there would be no need for a constantly changing ID. Because it constantly changes, logic would indicate it is on-board.

 

[OoTLink]

LOL, there is a way around that. Setup an internet connection + 'cheap' computer with 2 video capture cards and IR blasters in it.. have a script that when you send a request to the computer it 1. tells the boxes via IR to go to system info, and 2. take a 'snapshot' of the video coming in to the capture cards (could be done via RCA y adaptors or something of the sort so it's 'passive' with your TVs there)... an audit would require you to "go to the other side of the house and check" but if all was functioning right, you'd have the numbers and they wouldn't be the wiser

BTW the IR 'blaster' trick isn't too hard. All you'd have to do is get one of those IR to 'sound out/in' devices and "record" the system info "sound" from each remote, save them into one long file that plays them one after the other (this way you account for the different "remote addresses" and are able to use one sound 'output' with a y-adaptor and sound to IR converters at the end of each pointing at said receivers), make a script that plays the "sound" when requested, and snaps a shot off of the video capture devices (which could simply be a 'capture the screen' command if you left both video capture screens open constantly)...

Admittedly the idea is insane, and possibly overkill, but if I had the right things at hand (this could be done for the price of a ~p2 machine, 2 video capture cards, and a dialup internet connection since you're using *screenshots* and not actual video, plus 2 sound to IR converters, a y-adaptor and video cables for each box to go to the capture cards, and a y-adaptor plus long minijack audio cords to run to each box the "IR blaster").. Admittedly it'd cost as much as a 522 off ebay, but hey

 

[chaddux]

LOL, there is a way around that. Setup an internet connection + 'cheap' computer with 2 video capture cards and IR blasters in it.. have a script that when you send a request to the computer it 1. tells the boxes via IR to go to system info, and 2. take a 'snapshot' of the video coming in to the capture cards (could be done via RCA y adaptors or something of the sort so it's 'passive' with your TVs there)... an audit would require you to "go to the other side of the house and check" but if all was functioning right, you'd have the numbers and they wouldn't be the wiser

BTW the IR 'blaster' trick isn't too hard. All you'd have to do is get one of those IR to 'sound out/in' devices and "record" the system info "sound" from each remote, save them into one long file that plays them one after the other (this way you account for the different "remote addresses" and are able to use one sound 'output' with a y-adaptor and sound to IR converters at the end of each pointing at said receivers), make a script that plays the "sound" when requested, and snaps a shot off of the video capture devices (which could simply be a 'capture the screen' command if you left both video capture screens open constantly)...

Admittedly the idea is insane, and possibly overkill, but if I had the right things at hand (this could be done for the price of a ~p2 machine, 2 video capture cards, and a dialup internet connection since you're using *screenshots* and not actual video, plus 2 sound to IR converters, a y-adaptor and video cables for each box to go to the capture cards, and a y-adaptor plus long minijack audio cords to run to each box the "IR blaster").. Admittedly it'd cost as much as a 522 off ebay, but hey

Definitely overkill but certainly a creative idea. I believe that they tell you if you put them on hold or take too long for any reason, the audit is terminated immediately. I guess they are assuming that you might be calling your friend or whoever may have the receiver.

 

[OoTLink]

Yeah, but it wouldn't take that long to beam one down and get a response back, likely about as long as it'd take to walk upstairs and turn on a tv.

This makes me want to spawn a new thread, so here goes

 

[OoTLink]

Humorous solutions for audits.

To my discovery, it turns out that dish network actually DOES go and do "phone audits" -- where they call and force you to verify that all your receivers are in your house. That is mandatory, for any receivers which you can't "verify" in a "timely fashion" are "terminated". -- aka disabled...

Apparently such is a "minor offense" and can easily be fixed, but I think several things about this, one being invasion of privacy, the other being flaming rude. If someone called me and reported that they were going to audit me, I'm rather sure I'd chuckle, tell them that such is invasion of my privacy, provide them with the appropriate info, then ask to speak to their manager to cancel my account.

Nuff said. The boxes already stay plugged in and report all sorts of things behind my back over the phone lines, why should I be held at liberty to stop whatever I'm doing and go check the TVs around the house to make sure that I'm paying them "enough"?

So this thread, I was thinking of some humorous ways to tell off those pesky auditors! No laughing matter, you say? I digress!

1. Laugh them out, then hang up
2. Ask for them to verify that they're actually a dish network employee and audit their age/employee number and possibly location (maybe even SSN, since dishnet knows that about you!) -- since you shouldn't trust them if they don't trust you.
3. Tell them to do the physically impossible with the satellites and said receivers.
4. Make them walk you through to get the code, screw up every time (go to point dish, blare the EEEEEEEEE into the phone, oops sorry! I thought you said point dish!)
5. Say the numbers/letters wrong and keep correcting them, ask them to verify each time.

I dunno, maybe it isn't funny.. but shoot, I dunno.. it makes me mad too.. I needed to subdue my disappointment/anger in such a company to not trust their customers, it'd be like your ISP calling you and verifying the MAC address of every computer on your network, or wal-mart patting you down before leaving the store "just to make sure you're not stealing from us" -- just rude, totally unappreciative. I don't give a damn if they 'lose money' over such a thing because they could make their own damn ways to 'verify where the receivers are' if they weren't so petty.

 

[chaddux]

I dont think we needed a separate thread since you had already posted that.

 

[lawman1627]

I will get the other to receivers back home and hooked up then call them to try and reactivate them. I got mad tonight on my way to work thinking about how the audit went, they use hard hand techniques and bully you over the phone, I was deemed a "liar" and a "thief" and thats how they treated me, never mind that I have been customer since 97 or 98. The funniest part is when the supervisor told me that they share "fraudulent customer" info with D*, I had a good laugh at that one. The sad part is that they turned off my other 2 receivers that were at my house. Thanks for the info guys.

 

[OoTLink]

Sorry, but that's pretty damn disgusting, they should be more professional than to accuse a customer of being "fraudulent"..

I have a suggestion for you:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html